Layouts
The Layouts directory holds all of the layout files within a theme. A layout file is the main HTML and Liquid structure that surrounds your content. It may be helpful to think of it as your header and footer combined. Within the layout file you can designate where the content is to be outputted. All template files for pages, modules and forms fit within a layout.
Example layout.liquid layout file:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
<title>{% if request.first != 'home' %}{{ meta.title }} | {% endif %}{{ site.title }}</title>
<meta name="description" content="{{ meta.description }}">
<meta name="keywords" content="{{ meta.keywords }}">
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="screen,projection" href="/stylesheets/screen.css">
</head>
<body>
<div id="header">
<h1>{{ site.title }}</h1>
</div>
<div id="main">
{{ content_for_layout }}
</div>
</body>
</html>